Calling all Buyers. Question???

Would you offer asking if you really liked a house? or do you go in with an idea of what you will offer regardless?

Just curious.

Message edited 6/8/2009 3:11:42 PM.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

Do you think it is priced appropriately? Are there other offers? How long has it been on the market?

If there are no other offers, you can offer below asking. Your broker may ask you to raise your offer if it is not competitive, or the broker will submit the offer and the sellers will counter. Unless there are other offers on the table, I would not start by offering asking price.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

some things to consider:
how long has the house been on the market?
is the house vacant or does it look like the people are packing up?
is it priced right or low for the area?

make an offer on what the house is worth to you. worse that can happen is that they say no and you can up your offer. or they counteroffer and you see how you feel about the counteroffer.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

We give it a first look, but bottom line for me was that we weren't ever going to offer listing price b/c of the type of market this is.

If the house was well kept/done, we'd offer near full, but not full. We were able to get our owner's down on price due to the age of the furnace and cess pool and roof - about $10-20K.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

Hmm...I offered full asking on one house. I did not start there, but they had another offer on it. We actually lost the house because the other people were renters, and not in the middle of selling a house like me.

The house I am in now, was put on the market Jan. 6, and already had an offer on it, when I went to look at it. I personally felt it was priced for a quick sale. Nothing we looked at was near as nice and this was a LOT less than other houses int he same area. We still offered a little bit below asking. The other family offered full asking, but could not close as quickly as we could, so they went with our offer.

Although it was a very slow market, just about everything I looked at had other lookers/offers. If a house is priced right, I think thats what happens.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

We wouldn't offer asking price. Depending on the seller's situation would determine how long we'd go. Most buyers today realize that they will get below asking, but just how low it will go depends.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

In this market, probably not. If I loved the house and thought asking price was reasonable, I might, but I would make it clear that I am not interested in a bidding war. If I am going to offer the asking price, that is my only offer.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

right now, on LI, absolutely not.

We LOVED our house and offered 14% less, settled on 7% less (and this is when original asking was decreased 13%).
with so much inventory, we knew if we didnt get it, there would be another!

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

When we bought our house we did, but the market was STUPID competitive & we were running short on time. Now I would not, I would go a little lower & see what happens.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

We offered $15K less than asking and they accepted.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

I am looking in NJ but I am not prepared in this market to offer full price.

I think you should offer what you are comfortable with --- and go from there. But unless your bid is a complete low-ball, the lower the better in my book because there is room to negoitiate.

As others have said --- are there any other offers, how long has it been on the market, etc. etc.?

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

I would never offer asking but that's because I have that kind of mindset. Some people know they love a house and don't want to risk losing it by playing hardball. It all depends on the buyer.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

Probably not (unless there are other offers), but I would offer close to asking if I thought the house was priced well for the neighborhood. The other consideration is the amount of visible work the house needs--if it needs paint, that's not such a big deal. But if it needs a new heating system, roof, siding, etc., you are talking about a lot of money.

I would look at other listings in the area and see what people are asking for similar homes.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

I think it depends on the house and how much you love it and the impression you get as to how motivated the seller is. Here's what we did:

House #1: Offered 50K below asking; settled at 40K below (we ended up walking away after the inspection)

House #2: Offered 25K below asking; sellers never accepted (they said they had an offer of 9K below asking, which they accepted. Why they were still showing is beyond me....)

House #3: We offered 10K below asking and settled at 5K. (This was very stupid of us for the house we'd be getting; I'm glad the deal fell thru)

House #4 - the one we bought: We LOVED it!!! We were SO glad the others didn't work out once we saw it. And, it was WAY underpriced because the seller wanted out immediately. We offered 15K below asking and settled at $5K. The kitchen wasn't done, so the seller offered us a $5K credit so I guess technically, we got the house for $10K below asking.

Re: Calling all Buyers. Question???

Message edited 1/30/2009 10:52:00 PM.